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I’m moving.

This is not a reference to a personal household move replete with boxed up clothing, knick-knacks and photos but rather a work-related relocation. Hmmm. On second thought, I guess there is some of that involved with this work move as well. I’ll need to pack up all of my desk top paraphernalia – trinkets, mugs, calendars, cube-wall hangings, family photos and holiday decorations as well as two cover-ups I keep in my desk to ward off the chilly AC environment many of us women are all too familiar with.

After working for eight years in the same west side facility, my new work digs will be downtown. I’m both excited and apprehensive about this change, due to take place later this week. The commute won’t be as far but we’ll face some certain bottlenecks on our drive into the heart of the metro. Parking shouldn’t be an issue and the skywalk system will provide some nice opportunities for lunch time exercise no matter the weather outside. There will be new people to meet, a different routine and some adjustments to be made. Yin and yang, some good, some bad. I’ll be fine.

To prepare for the move, I’ve started some housekeeping tasks that include, among your basic culling–the-herd chores, getting rid of the Day Timer calendar pages I have inexplicably retained over the years. Scheduled meetings, project notes, to do items, lists of what I had to eat and what I did in the way of physical activity each day are scribbled on most every calendar sheet. Sometimes the pages are blank. And occasionally I used them as form of journaling, vacation planning and daydreaming.

As I read through these entries, laboriously flipping over each and every page, I was reminded of how frustrated I’d been just a few years ago, both with work and with my family – situations that have righted themselves somehow and are no longer as much a source of stress as they once were. Or perhaps I’ve just learned to adjust? Some of my scribblings described my Adventures in Baking: a few failures, several delicious successes. A favorite theme, in my journals throughout the years, is What’s Ahead for the Rest of [insert year here]: an enumeration of weddings, graduations, concerts, parties, family gatherings and vacations complete with dates and locations. It’s somehow gratifying to review these check lists and mentally look forward to similar activities yet to come while looking back, reliving events long past.

Decorating ideas, landscaping and furniture placement diagrams, recipes, quotes, photography and blogging concepts, story lines, financial portfolio tracking as well as mundane (yet necessary) doctor appointment reminders – all this information, about me and my life, woven onto paper with pencil, highlighters and pen. So much to sift through here – I don’t know if I can find the time to get through it all.

It’s both fun and thought-provoking to go back in time, one page at a time, to re-examine the minutiae of my life – both on a personal and on a business level – the tasks, events, ideas, projects and plans that filled my days. I no longer use a DayTimer at work but I still journal, jotting down important (and trivial) thoughts, yearnings and observations as they pop into my head. While I’ve never tossed a journal, the time has come to discard these daily calendar pages much as it pains me to do so. However, it is possible, I suppose, that I might need to look up something that occurred way back on, say, Friday, June 5, 2009. Or I might get to wondering what I was doing on Sunday, February 13, 2011.

It could happen. Maybe I’ll just box them up for later…

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The eating season is upon us.

Purists, myself included, might argue that Thanksgiving is NOT the true starting point of holiday gluttony. It’s Halloween, instead, that really kicks off the Season of Eatin’ in my mind. Sure, the kiddos are scarfing down sugar at an alarming rate on All Saints Day; however, only the most disciplined among us fail to hold back our favorite candies from the Trick or Treat Trough for our own enjoyment later, leaving little ghosts, witches and goblins a paltry mix of Dots, Butterfingers and hard candies instead of the really good stuff – Tootsie Rolls, Milky Ways and Hershey bars.

And so it’s Halloween when our caloric intakes begins its steep ascent. By the time we’ve eaten our way through our private stashes of chocolate (and let’s face it – that’s the stuff we tell ourselves we’re buying for the children but we all know we buy those bags of miniatures for US, not the neighbor kids), we’re only a few weeks away from Turkey Day with the named main course, hard to resist side dishes, buns, rolls and pies, pies, PIES!

As we scramble to locate needle and thread to refasten all the buttons that have popped from stuffing ourselves silly at Thanksgiving, our eating thresholds now risen a few notches, the pièce de résistance – the countdown to Christmas! – begins. Endless potlucks, company luncheons, goodies showing up at work every other day, holiday get-togethers and the Big Day itself with ham and potatoes and gravy and green bean casserole and platters brimming with sausages, cheese and crackers. And that’s just the warm-up. The real business is yet to come – Christmas cookies, bars, more pies, decadent desserts of every kind. To wash it all down are soft drinks, eggnog, wine, steaming hot cocoa and apple cider and other choice beverages, several of which are alcoholic in nature.

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The holidays just wouldn’t be the same without the warmly traditional yet rich, calorie-laden, sugary, fattening, gloriously delicious foods of our childhoods. Come January, we’ll pay the price but for most of us, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Waiting in the car while my husband picked up some painting supplies at Home Depot last night, I was glad for the small Canon PowerShot I purchased a few months back to leave in the car so I’d be able to snap scenes like this whenever I happened upon them. Nothing award-winning by any means but I do so love me a good sunset!

Special shout out to Julie, my blogging buddy from New Zealand. This one’s for you! 🙂

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What should we do today?

Hmmm. I don’t know. I guess the bathroom could use a good cleaning. We still need to cut down those tall grasses out back and stow away the patio chairs. Oh. And we talked about doing a ‘cook-a-thon’ to stock the freezer with casserole goodies so we won’t have to keep eating out so much during the week.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, okay. I’ll draw up a grocery list. [She pulls out a scratch pad and pen, starts putting together a shopping list.]

Hey. Want to run to Starbucks, read the paper, ‘lax a bit before we start in?

Sounds like a plan. Let me shower first.

OK. I’ll just finish up some work-work while you’re doing that.

Oh. I think I’ll check my blogging stats real quick first… [She scrolls through her Facebook feed, responds to a few posts, accepts a Friend request – looks through his recent activity and photos – laughs at a few posted videos, jumps to her blog stats (sigh – nothing), pulls up her Reader to see what’s new, laughs at some funny photos, Likes a few of them, punches in a couple of witty comments to others, realizes she was going to take a shower, heads to the bathroom.]

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That felt good. Now I am clean and you are dirty. [They both laugh at this long-shared joke.]

So. Do we really want to do this – get started on painting the living room?

Sure. I think it would look better than that contractor-white that’s up there now. [She offers to help as he starts pulling the furniture away from the main wall and removes all the photo frames, the ones he took such time and painstaking effort to put up there in the first place. He then takes measurements to calculate how much primer and paint they’ll need.]

No. Just stay the heck out of my way. [Again they laugh at yet another shared joke. Whether it’s him preparing a meal or doing something of a technical or mechanical nature or anything requiring brute strength, that’s his standard, light-hearted response.]

Remember, we need to stop at Target for my Rx. Then we can get painting supplies and stop at Starbucks for an hour or two.

I’d kind of like to find a place to watch the football game at 2:30.

Right. Well, let’s run our chores first, hang out at Starbucks for a bit and then go to that sports bar across from the mall to watch the game.

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Another disappointing game. Well, there’s always basketball!

I think I’ll stop at Home Depot for a few more paint supplies that I should have picked up earlier today. [She waits in the car and snaps several photos of the gorgeous sunset sky, all lit up in shades of pink, rose, blue and turquoise.]

The wind has died down and it’s not really that cold right now. I’ll get my walk in when we get home.

Yeah, I’ll burn that master copy of Becky’s wedding video while you’re doing that.

Perfect! And maybe a little House of Cards later tonight?

[He sits in the recliner to listen to the post-game show while she checks her blog stats (much better!). Half an hour goes by, then an hour. She’s still sitting there, working on a new idea for her next post, he’s nodded off and fallen asleep. She decides it’s probably a little too chilly now for her walk and besides, she still needs to run to the store to get those groceries they forgot to pick up earlier.]

[And so it goes…]

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Watching the marching band perform pre-game today (another cringe-worthy loss – don’t ask), I snapped this photo of their – what DO they call these things: hats? helmets? head gear? – anyway, the Things They Wear On Their Heads – lined up like so many soldiers standing at attention on a brick wall near Alumni Hall. I like the orderly display of these elegantly adorned uniform pieces, each one outfitted in grand fashion with shiny medallion, gold braid and fluffy white plume.

The cadence of drums and clanging of cymbals, the cheers of the crowd and the pep squad routines all help to fire up the faithful before every game. The crowd claps and cheers their enthusiastic approval under a sunny sky that helps to offset the chilly, breezy November air. Our college mascot, on display throughout the huge tailgate lot on flags, banners, party RV’s, stocking caps and jackets, with our school colors of cardinal and gold, provides a colorful backdrop to bag toss games, grilling, canopies and liquid spirits. The carnival atmosphere, steeped in tradition, brings friends and family together for every home game ensuring fond memories for years to come – even when the win-loss record (such as is the case this particular season) is horribly out of balance.

Go Cyclones!